Max C. Thompson

Max C. Thompson was an American ornithologist and biology professor whose writing focused on birds, especially the avian life of Kansas. Records from the Smithsonian Institution describe him as born in 1936, educated at Southwestern College and the University of Kansas, with additional graduate study at Ohio State University.

He served as a research curator for the Pacific Ocean Biological Survey Program and later taught as a professor and research associate in biology at Southwestern College in Winfield, Kansas. Southwestern College also lists him as a retired professor and greenhouse supervisor, reflecting a long connection to the school.

Readers are most likely to know him through Birds of Kansas and the earlier Birds in Kansas, works that helped make detailed ornithological knowledge accessible to both serious birders and professional researchers. He also wrote Birds from North Borneo, showing the wider range of his field experience beyond the Great Plains.